Mulberry family. Homeland - China, Japan, Taiwan, Vietnam.
ficus pumila
ficus pumila 'White Sunny'
ficus pumila 'White Sunny'
ficus pumila 'White Sunny'This is an evergreen herbaceous plant with creeping shoots densely covered with small alternate leaves on short petioles. Ficus has two types of leaves: juvenile (young) leaves are round-heart-shaped, from 2.5 to 4 cm in length, and about 2 cm in width, in some varieties the leaves are rounded, in others more elongated. The surface of the leaf is dense, smooth or wrinkled.
The second type of leaves are age-related, appear on adult plants, at the ends of shoots, they are much larger from 7 to 10 cm long, more rigid, with pronounced venation on the underside, the stems of age shoots are thick with dense bark. Only on shoots with aged large leaves in nature do the dwarf ficus produce fruits - syconia.
They are light green spherical or pear-shaped, about 3 cm in diameter, orange when ripe, not eaten, but in the East (Vietnam. China, Japan) are used in traditional medicine. In room conditions, only juvenile shoots are formed on the ficus.
Says Agava: In warm lands, old plants begin to produce thick shoots with large oval leaves. Fruits can only be on such branches. By the way, the variegated 'Sunny' with age becomes simply green with larger leaves, but these are still juvenile shoots, not fruit. But such fallen "flowers" - empty flowers were lying below. Not one with seeds. Here is this brown "fur" on the inner surface - and there are flowers:
Caring for ficus dwarf
Temperature: moderate, optimal in the range of 20-25 ° С, in winter it is possible to contain at lower temperatures of about 12-14 ° С, with irrigation restriction, the limit is 8 ° С at dry content. Although under natural conditions, the tiny ficus can withstand lower temperatures and even small frosts.
Lighting: Ficus pumila grows well in bright diffused light with some sunlight. The east and west window is suitable, shading is required only at noon. It also grows well under artificial light. Variegated ficus is more photophilous. If ficus lacks light, it can grow new shoots without leaves.
Watering: quite plentiful, this is a rare ficus that does not tolerate complete drying of the earth, it should always be slightly moist, but dry from above to the next watering. In order not to turn the pot with the earth into a swamp, drainage is poured onto the bottom. In winter, watering is limited, after the ground at the top of the pot dries, wait another 3-5 days with another watering. In general, watering should be of such a frequency that the soil does not dry out completely - into dust.
Fertilizer feeding: from March to August, once every two to three weeks you can feed fertilizers for ornamental and deciduous plants. Any - Pocon, Uniflor-growth or Uniflor-micro or Merry Flower Girl will do.
Air humidity: leaves need to be sprayed, especially in summer in hot dry weather, and backwashing during the heating season, from dry air very easily ficus pumila is attacked by a spider mite.
Transplantation: carried out annually in the spring, in fresh land. Soil mixture: 2 parts of leafy land, 1 part of peat land, 1 part of sand and 1 part of well-decomposed compost. Leaf land can also be used in its pure form, ficuses grow well in universal soils from the store. Soil acidity from weakly acidic to very weakly alkaline (pH 5.5-7.5). Alkaline and too acidic substrates ficus does not tolerate.
A pot of any material, not deep, but wide enough. Navigate by such proportions - the width of the pot and the height are about the same. The roots of the dwarf ficus are urinary, but easily tear, shallow. If, when transplanting, an old lump of land is too heavily braided with roots - do not tear it apart, just transplant more into a pot, and add not ordinary soil, but humus soil.
Propagation of ficus pumila
Ficus pumila cuttings are easily rooted in water, soil, or moist vermiculite. You can also make a tap, for this, another pot of earth is placed next to the ficus pot, the ficus sprig is not cut off, but taken to another pot, and sewn to the ground (you can use a piece of wire or a paper clip). The land with the branch is kept constantly moistened.
You can root tiny ficus cuttings in the ground or pure vermiculite. There are two options: in a "modernized" plastic bottle and a cup with vermiculite.
A 0.5L plastic bottle must be cut (the middle part can be cut out), drain and earth poured into the lower one, stuck in the cuttings and closed with the upper part (remove the lid). It turns out a micro-greenhouse, no need to ventilate.
The photo shows that from high humidity on the cuttings, roots formed not only in the ground, but also above the surface of the earth, and literally in a week.
In a cup with vermiculite, the roots also formed, and quite strong, but it is better to root in a transparent glass so that the formation of roots is visible.
